September 2025

CELEBRATING 26 YEARS OF ROGER REVELLE

COMMEMORATIVE LECTURES

The Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture Series was created by the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of

Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to highlight the important links between ocean sciences and public policy. The series

was named in honor of the late Roger Revelle, a leader in the field of oceanography for over 50 years who spearheaded

efforts to investigate the mechanisms and consequences of climate change.

These lectures have been published annually in Oceanography, beginning with the very first lecture in 1999. Links to the

articles are provided below.

2025. Oceanography in the Age of Intelligent Robots and

a Changing Climate

by C. Scholin

2023. Making Waves and Charting New Paths: A Fireside Chat

with Kathy Sullivan and Margaret Leinen

by Taylor Goelz

2022. Bio-Inspired Ocean Exploration

by Nicole W. Xu and John O. Dabiri

2021. A Generational Shift in Ocean Stewardship

by Alfredo Giron-Nava and Harriet Harden-Davies

2020. The Story of Plastic Pollution: From the Distant Ocean Gyres

to the Global Policy Stage

by Chelsea M. Rochman

2019. Sustainability in Deep Water: The Challenges of Climate

Change, Human Pressures, and Biodiversity Conservation

by Lisa A. Levin

2018. Distress Signals: Historical Waypoints in Northwest Atlantic

Fisheries Since 1850

by W. Jeffrey Bolster

2017. Swells, Soundings, and Sustainability, but…“Here Be Monsters”

by Dawn J. Wright

2016. Managing Leviathan: Conservation Challenges for the

Great Whales in a Post-Whaling World

by Phillip J. Clapham

2015. Overturning Assumptions: Past, Present, and Future Concerns

about the Ocean’s Circulation

by M. Susan Lozier

2014. The Contemporary Challenge of the Sea: Science, Society,

and Sustainability

by David M. Karl

2013. Melting Ice: What is Happening to Arctic Sea Ice, and

What Does It Mean for Us?

by John E. Walsh

2012. Tsunamis: Are We Underestimating the Risk?

by Eddie Bernard

2011. Troubled Waters of the Gulf of Mexico

by Nancy N. Rabalais

2010. The Interconnected Biosphere: Science at the

Ocean’s Tipping Points

by Jane Lubchenco and Laura E. Petes

2009. The Once and Future Ocean

by Paul G. Falkowski

2008. Looking Down on the Seas: How Satellites Are Revolutionizing

Our Understanding of the Ocean

by Michael H. Frielich

2007. What Corals are Dying to Tell Us About CO2 and

Ocean Acidification

by Ken Caldeira

2006. Disasters, Death, and Destruction—Making Sense of

Recent Calamities

by Roger A. Pielke, Jr.

2004. Abrupt Climate Changes: Oceans, Ice, and Us

by Richard B. Alley

2003. Sustaining Our Oceans: A Public Resource, A Public Trust

by Admiral James D. Watkins

2002. Beyond the Freedom of the Seas: Ocean Policy for the

Third Millennium

by Michael Orbach

2001. Ocean Exploration

by Marcia McNutt

2000. The Oceans and Human Health: The Discovery and

Development of Marine-Derived Drugs

by Shirley A. Pomponi

1999. Contemplating Action: Storing Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean

by Peter G. Brewer